1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus for assembling containers into portable packs by manual operation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,506 there is described a carrier for multiples of flanged containers, the carrier comprising a sheet of paperboard containing apertures for receiving the containers, said apertures being surrounded by radial slits to form fingers by which a container is retained in an aperture. That invention offers biodegradable packaging as well as certain economic advantages.
To meet the economic and environmental objectives of using a minimum of material, the fit of containers in a carrier is of precision comparable to the precision of container dimensions. Because of this precision fit of containers in the carrier, it is thought to be impractical to insert containers by hand; however there is a need for a hand operated machine for attaching a handy carrier to a group of containers which is intended to provide a low volume handy container pack machine having a reduced complexity of features that will be peculiar to a manually-operated machine. One form of a low volume machine selected for description is not intended to be restricted as other forms may include means which accomplish the unique functions described.